Why I Am Still a Mormon - Book of Mormon Edition

Many who leave the LDS church often explain that their disillusionment with the Book of Mormon is what spurred their departure, and often suggest that a close look at the book - its origins and text - requires any serious person to reject it. For me, the exact opposite is true. The more closely I examine the Book of Mormon, the more convinced I am that it comes from God.

There is more to God's plan than being a good person.

I'm a good person (most people are).  However, I am also a (1) believer in Jesus Christ, and (2) an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I distinguish those things from being a good person because one can certainly be a good person without being either (1) or (2).  And one can, of course, believe in Christ without (2).  

The Book of Mormon is what moves me, personally, down the road that leads to both (1) and (2).  After reading it, it was not enough for me to just remain a good person. I felt compelled to embrace the belief that not only is Jesus alive and the Biblical account of His mortal life is true, but that God has again chosen a prophet in our modern times and restored His church to the earth.  By taking the road that leads away from simply being a good person, I have found peace, happiness, and answers.  Because I want other people to enjoy the same satisfaction I have, and I know the Book of Mormon will lead them to it, I have and will continue to invite others to read the Book of Mormon for themselves.

The Book of Mormon is what it claims to be.

The Book of Mormon claims to be the religious record of people who lived anciently on the American continent and worshipped Christ.  Its writers made the record and passed it down through many generations so that the record could eventually be unearthed on a future date.  The book tells of a people who worshipped Christ, looked forward to His coming, were visited by Christ personally after His resurrection, and then eventually rejected Christ’s gospel and were destroyed.  The book’s writers were prophets, knew about the impending destruction of their people, and made the record so that eventually the Book of Mormon could emerge in modern times and corroborate the Biblical account of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

The Book of Mormon's skeptics agree that this is what the Book of Mormon says about itself, but conclude that the book, nevertheless, is the product of a modern person’s imagination.  They often point to some of the themes within the Book of Mormon, see that many of those themes were topics of discussion in the 19th century religious culture of the United States, and conclude that Joseph Smith, or perhaps Sidney Rigdon, must have written the book as a ruse.  In my opinion, there are several problems with this conclusion..

First, the Book of Mormon is ridiculously complex.  It is semitically accurate, contains hundreds of different characters, and introduces more than a dozen words to the English language. Additionally, there is often more than one narrator controlling the story at any given time, and the book is replete with uses of a complicated nonlinear narrative.  Overall it is nearly 600 pages long and has 239 chapters.

Joseph was not stupid, but he was not sophisticated.  His earned a living as a laborer, he had no significant formal schooling, and was only 23-24 during the time that he translated the book.  During that time he was kept busy with hard labor, moving from place to place, and he and his wife lost their first baby.  Once he obtained the golden plates upon which the ancient people had kept their record (the plates’ existence is corroborated by the testimony of 11 sworn witnesses and that of his wife, Emma, who could feel the plates under their covering as she dusted around them), he was constantly harassed by people trying to steal them.  To me, it is ridiculous, frankly, to conclude that Joseph sat down and just wrote the Book of Mormon from beginning to end.  I don’t think any competent skeptic who has read the book honestly believes that (note that most skeptics have not read it).

Second, the conclusion that the Book of Mormon is merely the product of some modern person’s imagination defies the historical account of how we got the Book of Mormon. By all accounts of the people close to Joseph during the translation process, Joseph dictated the text of the Book of Mormon to various scribes.  Dictated.  In about 90 working days.  Have you tried to dictate anything, lately?  His wife Emma, who served as one of his scribes, said that he could dictate for hours as she wrote, and then after breaking for meals or other reasons, he would pick up - to the word - right where they left off without the need to review her written manuscript.  Two of his other scribes, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, relate essentially the same experience.  Though Cowdery and Harris would later grow disaffected with Joseph and leave the church, they never repudiated their accounts (despite invitations to do so) - nor their certainty that the Book of Mormon came from God.

To conclude that Joseph or someone else simply wrote the book, one must dismiss the actual historical account as the result of some strange conspiracy, and then invent a new historical account out of whole cloth.  That is, one does not reject Joseph's simple explanation because of the historical account, but in spite of it. Many skeptics have accepted the fact that Joseph dictated the Book of Mormon (since there is virtually no indication, otherwise), but insist that Joseph must have been reading from a manuscript that none of his scribes knew about. That’s an interesting theory - without any evidence.  This and other theories attempting to reconcile the Book of Mormon’s complexity with its unsophisticated translator, is borne from a prejudiced refusal to believe the historical evidence - not the necessary result of an examination of the historical  evidence. (I should note that Joseph’s lack of sophistication adds to the credibility of his story - but my conclusion would not be any different if Joseph had been a brilliant academic.  No human, no matter how intelligent, can dictate a book like the Book of Mormon out of their own imagination - let alone do it in about 90 working days).    

A third problem with the skeptics’ theories: none of them account for the entire book.  Those who insist the Book of Mormon is a modern invention point to seemingly modern themes, ideas, or general plot lines - but so what? Criticizing a few individual brushstrokes does not discount a painting composed of thousands of brushstrokes. That criticism assumes that ancient people were too simple to grapple with ideas that the critics arrogantly insist only “modern” people are smart enough to think about.  But more importantly, identifying general themes and plot lines does not explain how an unlearned laborer sat in a little house in rural New England and dictated nearly 600 pages of “heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity” that, since that time, has changed the lives of millions of people throughout the world. (Jeffrey Holland, Oct 2009 General Conference).

One final problem with the skeptics’ conclusions that I’ll note here.  The skeptics assume Joseph and his contemporaries were liars trying to trick people into following them - but the problem is that they didn’t act like liars.  While the publication of the Book of Mormon and the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints brought immeasurable spiritual fulfillment to Joseph and the church’s early members, those things also brought an enormous amount of physical and emotional suffering.  The early members were often under the threat of mob attacks - mobs that killed, robbed, raped, burned, destroyed, and terrified.  Joseph spent much of his life on the run, was beaten, tarred and feathered, falsely imprisoned in deplorable conditions, and routinely named in frivolous lawsuits - all before he and his brother were eventually murdered by a mob of cowards.  After Joseph’s murder, the church members were turned out of their homes and forced into the frozen night while their temple burned.  Eventually, the church members fled the United States for Mexican territory because during the 15 years of awful persecution, local, state, and national political leaders turned a blind eye - refusing to protect the deplorable “Mormons,” and in some cases joining in with the efforts to destroy them.

The question is: why would Joseph and others lie to their death about the Book of Mormon if doing so would not lead to any discernible economic or political benefit? If doing so would, instead, result in awful suffering and persecution - not only for Joseph, but thousands of other men, women, and children?  As Joseph and his brother Hyrum (and others) sat in Carthage Jail waiting for their imminent deaths, they read from the Book of Mormon for comfort.  Jeffrey Holland aptly asks “whether in this hour of death these two men would enter the presence of their Eternal Judge quoting from and finding solace in a book which, if not the very word of God, would brand them as imposters and charlatans until the end of time? They would not do that! They were willing to die rather than deny the divine origin and the eternal truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.” (Oct 2009 General Conference).   

Simply put, the most reasonable explanation for the Book of Mormon’s existence - as a historical, economic, sociological, and logistical matter - is that Joseph dictated the words of the Book of Mormon as they were revealed to him by God.  

One of the Book of Mormon’s primary purposes is to validate the Bible.

Mormon, the editor in chief of the Book of Mormon, flatly stated that “this [the Book of Mormon] is written for the intent that ye may believe that [the Bible]; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also.” Therefore, he says, “repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ.” (Mormon 7:8-9).

Nearly one thousand years before Mormon wrote, the Lord spoke through Nephi and anticipated that when the Book of Mormon was unearthed, many would say “A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible.” (2 Nephi 29:3).  The Lord, however, reasoned: “Know ye not that there are more nations than one?...because I have spoken one word ye need not suppose that I cannot speak another...because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all my words.” (2 Nephi 29).  Therefore, the Lord concludes, “murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word? Know ye not that the testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God, that I remember one nation like unto another?...when the two nations shall run together, the testimony of the two nations shall run together also.” (2 Nephi 29:8).

The Book of Mormon is proof that the divinity of Jesus is not a cultural construct created by a persecuted group of religious zealots.  The account of His life and resurrection in the Bible is true. We know this, in part, because He didn’t just visit the area surrounding Jerusalem.  Shortly after His ministry recorded in the Bible, He visited his “other sheep” here on the American continent. (John 10:16).  He appeared to a large group of people, and this happened:

And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying: Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world. And it came to pass that the multitude went forth, and thrust their hands into his side, and did feel the prints of the nails in his hands and in his feet; and this they did do, going forth one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands, and did know of a surety and did bear record, that it was he, of whom it was written by the prophets, that should come. (3 Nephi 11:13-15)

Jesus is who He said He was - the Book of Mormon is a second, independent account by a completely different group of a people an ocean away from Jerusalem.  Now, just as Ezekiel prophesied, the record of Judah (the Bible) and the record of Joseph (the Book of Mormon) - have come together and they are one in our hand.  (Ezekiel 37:15-17).

Dichotomy.

If anything is good, then it comes from God. As Mormon teaches, “every thing which inviteth to do good...is of God.”  But the devil “persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one....neither do they who subject themselves unto him.” (Moroni 7).  So if something is truly good - God is its source, not Satan.  And people who have subjected themselves to Lucifer’s deceptive practices cannot advance true goodness.  In other words, “a man being evil cannot do that which is good” for the same reason that “a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water.” (Moroni 7:10-11).

Because of its extreme claim, the Book of Mormon is either what is claims to be, or it is a lie.  There is no middle ground. If Joseph Smith and the people near him fabricated the Book of Mormon (even though they went to their deaths insisting that they didn’t), then they participated in an evil plot that would make Joseph, in a particular, an awful person.  If that is the case, then they were working for Lucifer - not God.

The difficulty with concluding that the book is a lie is the fact that the Book of Mormon is absolutely bursting with goodness.  As Nephi remarks, it “teach[es] all men [and women] that they should do good.” (2 Nephi 33:10).  And Moroni adds that the book “is of great worth” to the world.  (Mormon 8:14).  

Moroni, not surprisingly, turned out to be right.  The book has fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people throughout the world over the course of nearly 200 years.  People of different ages, races, religions, nationalities, and socioeconomic statuses - all kinds of people who are thoughtful enough to study the book with open minds and hearts.  They find in the book what Truman G. Madsen called a kind of “white light.”  A warm, inspiring, goodness.

Even the skeptics who have actually read it are forced to acknowledge the moral force of the book’s teachings.  Which leads to an obvious question with an obvious answer: how could people advancing a deception produce a book filled with such genuine goodness? They couldn’t.  

It is simply not possible for Joseph to have been divinely inspired to foist a massive lie on the human race.  He was either enabled by God to unearth and translate the Book of Mormon, or he was working for Satan to perpetuate a lie.  And the deep goodness found in the book conclusively indicates the former.   

So what?

I’ve described what the Book of Mormon is and its main purpose. But I would like to further explain why it matters to me personally, and why I think it should matter to everyone else.

The Judgment is real.

Isaiah warns those who “call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).  I alluded above to the way Mormon explained how we can discern good from evil “as the daylight is from the dark night.”  Things which encourage us to come closer to God are good, those that encourage us to distance ourselves from Him are evil.  And then he warns, similarly to Isaiah, that we “take heed, my beloved brethren [and sisters], that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.” (Moroni 7:14-15).

The way we apply this discernment to the Book of Mormon matters - because the book claims to be one of the books out of which we will be judged at the final judgment. (2 Nephi 29:11).  That is, when the time comes for us to stand before God and account for our lives, He is going to want to know how we responded to the existence of the Book of Mormon.

In fact, two of the book’s writers promise us that we will meet them personally at the judgment bar.  Nephi reasons that “if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me.”  Nevertheless, he warns, “if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.” (2 Nephi 33:10-11).

Much later, Moroni, in his final words before burying the plates, assures us that “I speak it according to the words of Christ; and I lie not.”  And then he warns us: “I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust?...And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true.” (Moroni 10:27-29).

When I read those words - I believe them.  I cannot imagine Joseph Smith conjuring them up out of thin air (as I point out above, why would he do that?).  Like everyone else, I am free to respond to the Book of Mormon however I choose.  For me personally, one of the main reasons I believe in and strive to learn from the Book of Mormon is that I fully expect to have to explain myself to both God and the book's writers.

God’s actual church.

A fundamental tenant of the LDS church is that we “claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.”  (Article of Faith 11).  We believe that most churches/traditions are good, and inspired by God.  But the LDS church is not like other churches or faith traditions.  While other churches/traditions are human-made attempts to do what God wants - the LDS church is God’s actual church.

Since the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be, it means Joseph Smith was the prophet he claimed to be, and therefore the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is what Joseph claimed it to be: God’s actual church, uniquely authorized to administer God’s plan of salvation.   

When Jesus visited the people living on the ancient American continent, one of the many things He told them is that the Book of Mormon’s emergence in modern times would be a “sign” that the “work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel.” (3 Nephi 21:1-7).  God’s promise to gather Israel is being fulfilled - and the way He is gathering Israel is through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  

One way to think about this from the LDS perspective is to imagine the world’s religious traditions sitting in a room, thoughtfully trying to decipher God’s will by prayerfully studying ancient texts.  This is good. But then suddenly God, Himself, walks into the room.  The Book of Mormon is God's way of announcing that He has just walked into the room.   

Again - by divine design, all people are free to respond to the Book of Mormon however they choose.  For me, the book matters because it confirms the LDS church’s unique claims.  The book means that Thomas Monson is just as authorized to speak on God’s behalf as Moses was.  So for me, that means I should follow President Monson for the same reason the Hebrews followed Moses.   

Conclusion

I could go on.  The Book of Mormon means a lot to me.  It anchors my conclusion that God is real, and Jesus is who He said He was.  To me, it shows that God has done in our modern times what He always did anciently: chosen a prophet, distributed His authority, and established a living link with humanity.  But to borrow Levar Burton's immortal invitation: you don't have to take my word for it.